The Best Gift
by Digitaldreamer
Summary: Shanks is blackmailed into taking The Christmas Spirit's job and find proof that Christmas Spirit™ still exists before Christmas is canceled forever. Meanwhile, Luffy tries to make this the Best Christmas ever for his crew…can he do it?
1. Where's Everyone's Christmas Spirit?

**-The Best Gift-**

**A One Piece Christmas fanfic by Digitaldreamer**

**Chapter One: Where's Everyone's Christmas Spirit™?**

_Well…December is here at last! I'm so excited! And so to celebrate this I bring you…the Best Gift: A One Piece Christmas Fanfic._

_Surprisingly there will only be a few hints of pairings in this fic, it will mostly be nakama-ship, but you can expect a bit of ZoLu as usual. So be warned, there shall be a bit of boy love, but in small doses, so it should be enjoyable even for the none shonen-ai crowd._

_Anyway, I do hope you all enjoy it! I now present to you part one of The Best Gift!_

---

Some people say Monkey D. Luffy is childish.

In a way, he is. He gets excited easily, by the smallest things. He can be selfish sometimes, and getting ideas through his skull is neigh impossible. He has those wide, innocent eyes, one would even go as far to say that the boy was rather naive. Honestly, who became a pirate with the intention of great adventures as opposed to the plan of pillaging in this day and age? Who was honest now-a-days?

Luffy was, and this proved that perhaps not everything was entirely wrong in the world.

But people who truly know him know that Luffy is in fact an adult, a powerful fighter, and he is capable of making difficult decisions. He seems silly and immature, but there is more maturity and wisdom to him than meets the eye.

However, unlike most people who grew up, Luffy hadn't lost his inner child. He can still smile and laugh without a care in the world, and find wonder in the smallest of things. He can go through each day without a care in the world.

One could say that perhaps childishness wasn't such a bad thing, in this case.

One would also probably wonder what this fact has to do with this story, so I shall proceed to tell you now.

Now, as you may know, there are many different worlds. The world in which the Grand Line resides is but one of these, but one of our main concerns lies in a different world. This world is known as the spirit world, a world at the very center of all the other ones that governs all sorts of things. It is here that the Gods, mystical creatures, and the spirits of various holidays reside.

And it is here that our tale begins.

In the spirit world there is a hall known as Holiday Hall, where all of the holiday spirits reside. Valentines Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, they were all there.

And now Captain "Red-Hair" Shanks was stuck in the Spirit of Christmas' office.

It was admittedly a nice office, decorated with Christmas decorations year round. There was a large Christmas tree in one corner, a pile of presents beneath it. It was snowing from the ceiling in that corner as well, though it was notably toasty in the office itself. Then there was a large desk, on which there sat many Christmas cards and a small dish filled with miniature candy canes.

Sure, it was a nice office. But Shanks was really starting to get sick of being there.

The red-haired captain sighed, unwrapping yet another candy cane. Given that he had been doing this for several hours, he had gotten quite skilled at unwrapping the candy cane without breaking it in half. Shanks popped the candy cane into his mouth and twirled it with his tongue as he set his feet upon the desk and leaned back in the large, spinney chair.

Really, when the Spirit of Christmas had just popped up and asked Shanks if he wanted to come with him for a cup of eggnog, Shanks hadn't expected this. He had simply assumed that this was all just a weird dream caused by drinking too much and soon he'd wake up to a horrible hangover and Ben halfheartedly saying that he really shouldn't drink as much as he did. Since he believed it was all a dream, Shanks had gone alone. He hadn't expected this all to actually be real and to be stuck in the Spirit's office for six hours.

"Come on Shanks, just take the job," the Spirit of Christmas' voice crackled over the intercom, sounding desperate.

"No. Just because you're failing at your job doesn't mean you can just blackmail me into doing it for you," Shanks replied calmly, taking a sip of his twentieth glass of eggnog.

"But the boss says-"

"Do you really think I care what your boss says?" Shanks demanded, raising an eyebrow.

There was silence for several minutes, which Shanks took advantage of to stuff a few more candy canes into his pockets (the stash he had built up over the past few hours was getting low, best to restock while he could). Then finally, the Spirit of Christmas' voice crackled over the intercom once more.

"Well….I do believe you remember the little…'incident' last Christmas rather well?" the Spirit drawled.

Shanks made a face. "Yes, I remember the incident," he said, sipping his eggnog and wondering where this was going.

"Well….interestingly enough, I have a few…pictures from said incident."

Shanks choked on his eggnog. After sputtering for a few moments he finally regained his voice. "I thought we burned those?"

"Oh no, no, I have access to all these little memories," the Spirit cackled, clearly enjoying this. "Now…imagine what could happen if say…_Ben_ were to get a hold of a few of these pictures?"

The Red-Haired pirate gasped. "Now that's just low!"

"Ohhh, now this one with you and this girl is QUITE interesting…is that frosting from the Christmas cake on-"

"You wouldn't!" Shanks cried, his face becoming as red as his hair. Oh, he remembered that evening far too well…

"Oh, I will. You know I will, I do enjoy seeing the sparks fly between mortals….but I also enjoy keeping my job," the Spirit crooned. "So what say you agree to my terms?"

Shanks let out a low growl, teeth crunching down on the candy cane in his mouth. "What were the terms, again?" he demanded, cutting off the Spirit's voice. He snatched up the paper in front of him and began to read through it as the Spirit of Christmas began to explain.

"Ah…well, you see, lately there just hasn't been any Christmas Spirit™-"

"Whoa, whoa, hold it! Why's Christmas Spirit copyrighted?" the red-haired pirate inquired, poking at the tiny little ™ on the page.

"Oh…um, the Spirit of Thanksgiving felt that her holiday wasn't getting enough love, so she went and tried to steal the term. We had a rather nasty spite over it and soon enough it went to the courts, and I ended up getting it copyrighted. Now that fat bitch can't use it and try to get everyone to focus on her holiday. I can't see why she thinks it would help anyway, honestly!"

Shanks shook his head, this place was crazy. "Okay then, go on."

"Right, anyway. Lately there just hasn't been enough pure Christmas Spirit™; everyone's too busy running around fulfilling all the obligations and focusing only on getting that they all just seem empty. There's no spirit to holiday anymore, it's all commercialized."

The red-haired pirate snorted. "Isn't that kinda cliché? 'Oh no, there's no Christmas Spirit, what'll we do?'"

"Shut up. If there's no spirit to a holiday, then the Spirit of that holiday is fired, and that holiday is canceled. And since my holiday seems to be lacking in spirit, the boss plans on canceling Christmas."

"Cancel Christmas?" Shanks repeated, raising an eyebrow. "Why would your boss do that? The holiday's celebrating his birthday, for crying out loud!"

"He's sick of being upstaged by that fat red-neck anyway," the Spirit of Christmas explained dully. "So unless I find proof that Christmas Spirit™ still exists in the world, I'll lose my job, and Christmas will be cancelled forever."

"…and you want me to do the job for you?" Shanks asked dubiously.

"Well, yes. All you have to do is fly around and record some proof that Christmas Spirit™ is still alive and well."

"Hmmm….well….lemme think about it," Shanks drawled, tapping his fingers on the desk and taking a sip of eggnog. After a few moments he opened his mouth, making as if to say 'no'.

"Oh, now _this_ one looks quite embarrassing…imagine what would happen if I leaked this to press? I hear you're quite famous-"

"All right, all right! I'll do it!" Shanks cried.

"Excellent." The Spirit sounded quite relieved. A new piece of paper, decorated to look quite Christmassy, suddenly appeared before the red-haired pirate, along with a green pen. "Just sign on the dotted line, please."

Shanks made a face, glancing quickly over the first few lines of the contract before deciding that it looked like a rather boring read and choosing just to sign in his loopy signature.

The moment he signed in the shimmering green ink, the contract vanished in a few gold sparkles. However, instead of vanishing, the sparkles rose up and began to swirl around Shanks. All the pirate captain could see was a blur of gold, red, and green, and before he knew it he was clad in a rather tight, shirt-less, revealing red leather top with white fur lining, as well as a pair of very short and _tight_ red leather shorts. He also had a floppy red hat with a bell on the end, long black gloves, and pointed black boots that reached up to the tops of his shins. A long wand designed with candy cane stripes appeared in his hand.

Shanks' jaw dropped and he let out a rather unmanly scream. "What is this?" he cried, sounding completely appalled.

"Oh um….did I forget to mention that by signing the contract you officially become the Spirit of Christmas until your duties are fulfilled? That includes all the um…perks…"

"I look like some kind of Playboy Sugarplum Fairy!" Shanks shrieked.

"No no, you look like a Playboy Sugarplum _Spirit of Christmas_," the Spirit of Christmas corrected.

Said Playboy Sugarplum Spirit of Christmas just stood there for a moment, looking absolutely outraged.

"Um…well…you'd better get to your job then! The sooner you get it done, the sooner you can get out of that horrendous outfit! Now if you'll excuse me, I hear Water 7's rather nice around this time of year. Merry Christmas!" With that, the Intercom finally clicked off, and Shanks was left completely alone.

"Why that little…" Shanks made several enraged sounds before taking a deep breath. "When this is over with, I'm gonna shove some of that damned Christmas Spirit™ up his ass…"

But he would have to get this all over with, first.

With that, Shanks began pacing around the room and thinking. He spent several long hours doing this, chewing on candy canes and drinking far more eggnog than was good for a man.

Finally, on his seventieth cup of eggnog, it hit him.

Luffy!

If there was anyone that was bound to still have Christmas Spirit, it was Luffy! All he'd have to do was catch a bit of that childish enthusiasm of his on video, and Shanks would be free!

His plan set, Shanks shot to his feet and glanced at the wand in his hand. He gave it a doubtful look, then a small, experimental wave. Nothing happened.

The red-haired pirate gave a curse and threw the wand to the ground. "Stupid wand-"

He was cut off by a burst of green and red light, and before he knew it he was suddenly rushing through a warp hole that was colored red and white, the stripes rushing past him in blurs of color.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Shanks screeched as he sped through the warp hole. "WHEEEEEEEN I FIIIINNND THAAAT DAAAAMNED SPIIIRIIIIT I'M GONNA KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLLL HIIIIIIIIIM!"

---

"_Ohhhhh jingle bell, jingle bell, MERRY CHRISTMAS!"_ Luffy sang at the top of his lungs as he bounced all over the Going Merry. His arms were spread wide and his head tilted up to the sky so he could catch the snow flakes that slowly drifted down from it with his tongue. One would have thought that he was cold, clad in only his usual ratty red vest and jean shorts, but he was either perfectly comfortable in the frigid climate or oblivious to it.

Probably the latter.

"_Kore ga konya no okurimono sa…Sing!" _Usopp was prancing alongside Luffy, singing as well. He, however, had the foresight to wear a coat.

"_Jingle bell, jingle bell, HAPPY NEW YEEEAAR!" _Chopper continued from near both of them, where he lay back in the snow making a snow angel, a wide smile on his face.

"_Owaranai, uta kikoeruhazu!" _the trio sang together, continuing to dance through the snow as if they hadn't a care in the world.

Nami watched this from the galley, taking the hot chocolate Sanji offered her with a nod and a smile. She took a sip of it, sighing as warmth spread through her body and glanced back out the window once more.

Before Thanksgiving had even been over Luffy had already gotten excited about Christmas, and he quickly had dragged Usopp and Chopper into things. In spite of the fact that their ship didn't have a single decoration upon it and the holiday was says away, the boys simply got more and more excited, much to chagrin of the more…mature members of the crew.

And of course, the fact that the ship had just docked at a winter island, which was in full swing for celebrating the season, hadn't helped matters.

Of course, it wasn't to say everyone else wasn't getting a bit excited over the matter as well. Nami found herself planning out how they'd spend money on everything this year, Robin seemed to be quietly enjoying the atmosphere, and Sanji kept wandering around muttering in excited tones about "Nami-swan", "Robin-cwhan" and "mistletoe".

Zoro leaned against the mast as he watched Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper dance around, giving a small smile in spite of himself. He really could care less about the holidays himself…even though they always made him a bit nostalgic, remembering Christmases long past.

…Kuina had always loved the holidays. She always kept trying to stick decorations to his head, claiming he was just a chibi Christmas tree.

He hadn't been enjoying Christmas very much since she had passed away…but now he had new nakama to watch get all excited. To see his captain's face glowing like that brought a smile to his face and warmth to his chest that the swordsman hadn't felt in ages.

It was a welcome change.

"This is gonna be so awesome! Only one more day until Christmas!" Luffy cried in an excited tone, his eyes shining.

"Yeah! This is gonna be great!" Usopp cried, then paused, thinking for a moment. "Except we have no tree…or decorations…..or…anything."

Luffy's eyes widened and he glanced around, realizing that they were in fact lacking in all thing's Christmassy. This was a problem.

"AHHH! YOU'RE RIGHT!" he screeched, clamping his hands to his face.

"AHHH!" Chopper shot to his feet and mimicked Luffy's expression. What would they do without decorations! The doctor had told him all about those, weren't they supposed to be important?

"WHY DIDN'T YOU NOTICE EARLIER?" Usopp yelled, shocked that his captain hadn't noticed such a glaringly obvious problem.

"I-I don't know! What are we gonna do?" Luffy cried.

"AHHH!" Chopper screamed again.

Usopp watched their panic for a moment, suppressing a grin. Time for yet another one of his amazing tales to point them in the right direction. He put on a solemn face and folded his arms, shaking his head.

"I don't know…what _are_ we going to do?" the sharpshooter muttered. "I mean, if we don't have any decorations, Santa's not gonna come."

"HE'S NOT?" both Luffy and Chopper simultaneously shouted.

"No, no he's not. And just think, if not enough people decorate their trees, Santa won't have enough Christmas Spirit™ to fly in his space ship!" Usopp cried, waving his arms.

Luffy blinked in confusion. "Space ship?" he repeated. "But I thought he flew in a sleigh, with reindeer?"

"He does…but you see, if we don't decorate our ship, it'll cause a big chain reaction that will end in Santa making an alliance with aliens and using a space ship instead," Usopp explained, as if it were common knowledge.

"REALLY?" Chopper gasped.

"Really," Usopp nodded. "And if there's not enough Christmas Spirit™ to fly his ship, Santa will crash into the ocean and drown! The little boys and girls will never get their toys ever again, and Christmas will be ruined forever!"

"FOREVER?" Luffy and Chopper cried simultaneously, eyes wide.

"Forever."

"NOOOO!" Chopper cried, tears coming to his eyes.

"WE HAVE TO SAVE CHRISTMAS!" Luffy screamed. With that, he and Chopper rushed up the stairs to the galley, babbling about decorations, Christmas spirit, Santa, and spaceships.

Usopp remained behind, cackling. Yet another mass of naive, gullible ones fooled by his amazing wit.

"NAMI! NAAAAAAAAMI!" Luffy cried as he charged into the galley, starling Nami and causing her to nearly drop her hot chocolate.

"What? What is it?" the navigator cried, fumbling with the mug and standing, assuming it was some sort of real emergency.

"WE HAVE TO HURRY AND GET A TREE AND DECORATE THE SHIP AND GET PRESENTS!" Chopper babbled, waving his arms.

"WE HAVE TO NAMI! OR SANTA'LL GET ABDUCTED BY ALIENS AND HIS SPACESHIP WILL CRASH AND CHRISTMAS WILL BE RUINED FOREVER!" Luffy rambled, looking frantic.

Nami's eye twitched. _That_ was what this was about? "Decorating the ship would be…" she grabbed both Luffy and Chopper's heads, then proceeded to bang them together, "_EXPENSIVE!"_

Both Luffy and Chopper collapsed to the floor, groaning and rubbing their heads. They gazed up at Nami with hurt, puppy-dog looks.

"Why waste all the money we sto- borrowed from the last island? Santa won't be able to tell the difference between a mikan tree and a fir tree anyway. And we don't need presents either, so that's that," she declared calmly.

"Ah, Nami-san is so forceful!" Sanji spoke in a singsong voice. Even so, he sounded a bit bummed. They had always decorated the Baratie around Christmas, and there had been mistletoe and all those cute girls…

Luffy and Chopper stared at her with wide eyes.

"B-but…but…it's Christmas," Chopper whimpered.

"Yeah! It won't be the same without a tree and everything!" Luffy cried.

Usopp came changing in, babbling about how they needed a tree and he had hundreds of trees back in Syrup village every year. Apparently he had heard everything and was trying to come up to their defense.

"But we had _hundreds_ back home and-"

"Doctrine always hung up mistletoe and tried to catch all the men back in the villages-"

"I want a Christmas treeeee!"

It was then that Zoro poked his head into the galley, blinking as he watched the commotion. "What's this about a tree?"

Sanji suddenly grinned. "Hey, we don't need a tree! We can just use Marimo's head!" he said.

Zoro's eyes narrowed and he just barely pulled one of his katana from its sheath. "My head is _not_ a Christmas tree, Ero Cook!" he snarled.

"It sure looks like one, Moss-head!"

"Magic eyebrow!"

"Oh Christmas Tree, oh Christmas Tree!"

"RAAAAARGH!"

"What's all this noise about?" Robin inquired as she entered the galley, a book tucked under her arm. She paused at the door, blinking as she took in the site of Luffy and Chopper at Nami's feet, giving her puppy dog eyes, with Usopp behind them. Zoro and Sanji were paused in mid-attack at each other, both staring blankly at her. The navigator herself was rubbing her temples, apparently getting a headache from it all.

"Robin, Nami won't let us decorate the ship!" Luffy whined, being the first to speak up. "It won't be the same!"

The dark-haired women rose a perfectly arched eyebrow and glanced back at the navigator, whom shook her head. Robin just gave one of her mysterious smiles.

"Captain-san is right, Navigator-san. It wouldn't be same."

"See, even Robin agrees!" Chopper cried, and the chatter almost started again, but Nami cut them off.

"ALL RIGHT! ALL RIGHT! We'll decorate the ship!" Nami shrieked.

"…YOSH!" Luffy cheered, pumping his fist into the air. He, Chopper, and Usopp once again began to dance and sing. Zoro apparently settled down and simply glared at Sanji, whom had gone into random babblings about mistletoe once more.

"QUIET!" Nami cried, once again bringing about silence. "We have to BUDGET, all right? Six hundred and fifty-thousand belli…ah…that seems like too much…but if we split it, it should be enough, and it _is_ Christmas…"

"I will budget with love, Nami-san!" Sanji crowed, while the rest of the crew gave mumbles of excited agreement. Conversations once again started up again until Luffy's voice rose above it all.

"OH, OH! Can we go shopping now? We gotta get a really big tree and cool lights and decorations and presents, presents, presents!" Luffy cried excitedly, jumping up and down. Chopper mimicked his excited babbling, clapping his hooves together.

Nami watched their excitement and sighed, shaking her head and smiling. "Oh, all right. Let's go."

Luffy's face spread into a grin and he punched his fist into the air. "YOSH! LET'S MAKE THIS THE BEST CHRISTMAS EVER!"

"AYE!"

---

**To Be Continued…**

_Will Shanks be able to complete his quest? Will the crew be able to find everything they're looking for when they're so close to Christmas? And…is that ACE as the village Santa?_

_Find out next time in part two of the Best Gift!_


	2. Please Do Not Feed The Santa

**-The Best Gift-  
A One Piece Christmas Fanfic by Digitaldreamer  
Chapter Two: Please Do Not Feed the Santa**

_Thank you all so much for the reviews! I'm having a lot of fun writing this, so I do hope you all enjoy it! I have so many ideas and it's just so much fun…whee!_

_I'm so busy because I have so many drawings to make for people and this to write…but hey, it's worth it to see peoples reactions to my gifts for them._

_I do hope you all enjoy the second chapter of my gift to you all!_

_Oh, please keep in mind that this is my first time writing Smoker, Tashigi, and Ace. If any of them are OOC, PLEASE tell me!_

_Thank you and enjoy!_

---

_"Oh, the weather outside is frightful! But the snow is so delightful! And since we have no place to go, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!"_

"OHMYGOSH LOOK AT ALL THE LIGHTS! THIS IS SO COOL!"

"AHHHHHH! They have reindeer in front of their store!"

"Those are fake ones, Chopper."

"Oh, yeah."

"Just think, they may want a REAL reindeer though..."

"AHHH! NOT ME! NOT ME!"

"Ugh…there's so much slush Why doesn't the mayor of this place at least try to keep the roads salted? These boots were expensive…"

"Nami-swaaaaaaan, please allow me to throw myself before you so you may step on me and not get your dainty feet cold in all this snow!"

"Oh no, that's all right Sanji-kun. But someone will need to buy me replacements for these rather expensive boots…."

"I would be honored to buy boots for your glorious feet, Nami-san!"

Zoro's eye visibly twitched. Why had he chosen to come along on this damned shopping trip again?

He glanced back at Luffy, whom was gazing around at all the decorations with an awed grin on his face, eyes shining with excitement. The swordsman shook his head in disbelief as he viewed his captain's child-like excitement. Right, that was why. He enjoyed seeing his captain so happy, especially after the whole mess on Vendetta Island with Kuro.

The swordsman didn't really care for the holidays. Sure, he still celebrated them, it was an excuse to drink good sake. But really, he felt there hadn't much of a point to it beyond that. Then again, he hadn't really had much of purpose for the past few years. It had simply been about going along, fulfilling that promise he'd made so many years ago. Nothing had felt real, things had just sort of…been.

But he had a new purpose now. He had nakama now. Something to protect and strive for, a new goal that came only after the promise he'd been keeping for years.

The past few years had just felt so unreal, like walking through a fog that dulled his senses. And now there was that smile, breaking through the fog.

It was like a breath of fresh air.

And that just brought a whole new meaning to the picture. Something that touched his heart and made him feel again.

Maybe that was why things felt so different this year.

Or maybe he'd just become soft.

The swordsman snorted, shaking his head. He wasn't the type to get sentimental, it was probably best to just not bother thinking about it.

"SANTA!" Luffy's voice suddenly interrupted the swordsman's thoughts. Zoro blinked, seeing nothing but a blur of red fly out of his line of vision.

Luffy charged across the street and quite nearly got run over by several people, but he was oblivious to this. He was too busy focusing on the hobo who had been unfortunate enough to have a large red coat and a large white beard around this time of year.

"Luffy, that's not Santa!" Nami cried, but Luffy apparently didn't hear her.

"SANTA!" WHUMPH!

"Gah! Kid, get off of me!" the hobo cried, trying to shake Luffy off.

"Okay Santa, I want a bunch of meat and lots of cool stuff and I want all of my nakama to be happy and I want meat!" Luffy began to babble on and on, apparently oblivious to the man's instant cries that he was not Santa.

"Santa?" Chopper blinked, then noted the man his captain was hugging. "SANTA!" The reindeer cried, following Luffy's example and glomping the man as well.

The crew watched this for a few seconds, displaying expressions ranging from amused to horrified to utterly embarrassed. Apparently no one was willing to go pry Chopper and Luffy away from the hobo, as that would prove to everyone staring that they were with the two crazies.

Zoro glanced over at Nami, whom was covering her face with her hands before rolling his eyes and stomping across the street. "Cowards," he growled.

"Is it true that you ride in a big sleigh that's pulled by reindeer?" Luffy was babbling, eyes wide.

"For the last damn time, I'm not Santa!"

"Luffy…" Zoro grunted, reaching out to grab the boy by the back of his shirt and pull him away from the poor old man. "That's not Santa."

Luffy blinked up at the swordsman. Chopper hopped off of the man, blinking as well.

"He's not?"

"No."

"Oh…" Luffy and Chopper glanced at each other before looking back at the hobo and laughing.

"Sorry mister! Merry Christmas!" With that they rushed back to the group.

The homeless man grumbled, sitting up and trying to straighten his ragged coat. Zoro carefully wiped some of the snow off of him.

"Sorry about that," he muttered.

The man shook his head, giving a small smile. "Eh…it's all right. I guess a lot of kids get excited around this time of year…they with you?"

"Unfortunately," Zoro grunted.

The man laughed out loud. "I envy you. It must be exciting to have friends like that," he said, eyes twinkling as he watched Luffy and Chopper babbling excitedly across the street.

The swordsman shook his head, smiling in spite of himself. "Yeah, it is."

"Well…it's a season of miracles. Maybe you can find a bit of that spirit too, hm?" the hobo said with a smile and a wink, beginning to walk away. "Who knows…maybe you'll get what you're really wishing for. Merry Christmas!"

Zoro blinked. "Er…yeah…Merry Christmas," he said, heading back across the street.

He returned just in time to see Nami gathering everyone together in an attempt to organize things. "Okay, everyone focus!" she cried, trying to get everyone's attention. "We're here to get a tree, remember?"

"And decorations! Don't forget decorations!" Usopp added.

"Yes, mistletoe!" Sanji cried.

Nami sighed, shaking her head. "Yes, those too. So let's just-"

"SANTA!" Chopper's high, excited voice cut off Nami's as the reindeer pointed wildly at the town square ahead of them.

"Chopper, we've been through this. There's no Santa here," Nami said calmly. "Now anyway-"

"No, really! Look!" The reindeer cried.

The navigator rolled her eyes, glancing towards where Chopper was pointing…only to see that he was right.

A large, fake plastic sleigh had been placed in the center of the square, which was surrounded by all sorts of Christmas decorations. There were tall candy canes around the sleigh, apparently blocking off people from going near it. There was also a long line of young, excited children that wrapped around the square. Several exhausted looking adults in elf costumes were apparently trying to keep the children in line as one by one they went up the sleigh.

And of course, the one in the sleigh? Santa himself, laughing merrily as children seated themselves on his lap.

"Oh…what do you know?" Nami muttered.

"The sign says 'Meet Santa'!" Chopper cried excitedly, jumping up and down. "I wanna meet Santa! I wanna meet Santa!"

"Me too! Me too!" Luffy shouted.

"But we're here to get decorations! Christmas is tomorrow, we don't have time!" Nami cried.

Chopper turned back to stare at Nami with wide, tear-filled eyes. "B-but…but…I want to see Santa!"

"Me too!" Luffy cried, mirroring Chopper's expression.

Nami inwardly cringed. Even she couldn't last forever against such an assault! Sure, Zoro was more likely to cave against Luffy's puppy-dog eyes than her, but that with the combined force of Chopper's cuteness was impossible to handle.

She managed to hold her 'That's Final!' glare for a total of ten seconds before finally sighing and shaking her head. "Okay, okay, fine! You can go see Santa! You'd probably be too distracted to help anyway," she muttered with a small smile.

Both Chopper and Luffy cheered, and the two began to do some sort of odd, disturbing victory dance. Nami watched this for a few moments before focusing on the other members of the crew.

"Okay, since those two are going to see Santa, that leaves the five of us. Sanji-kun, Usopp? You guys have to get a big tree and bring it back to the ship, all right?"

"I will seek out a tree worthy to be on the same ship as my beautiful Nami-san!" Sanji crowed, hearts filling his eyes.

"W-wait, why do I have to come? I can't carry that thing!" Usopp cried, eyes widening. There was no way he'd be able to carry a big old pine tree all the way back to the ship. "I-I can't do it…I have... ah….Tree-itis. It's a horrible disease that comes when I'm near pine trees, so I'll just have to go back to the ship-"

"Or you could get a fake tree. I don't care what you say, you're going," Nami snapped.

Usopp raked his brain for an excuse, but couldn't seem to come up with one. Finally he sighed, resigning himself to his fate. "Fine."

"Good. Once you're done with that, be sure to come back and buy a lot of food. Robin and I are going to go get decorations and things, so I guess that leaves Zoro to stick around and watch after Luffy and Chopper-"

"What? Why do I have to do that?" Zoro demanded. He had just been thinking about visiting that pub across the street! "They can take care of themselves!"

"Because you're probably the best chance we have at making sure those two don't jump any more hobo's," Nami said plainly, jerking a thumb towards Luffy and Chopper. The two were now occupied with poking at a light-up reindeer, succeeding in accidentally knocking off one of it's antlers. "That and if you go off by yourself, you'll get lost and we won't see you again until New Years."

"I would not-"

"Do it or I'm raising your debt…how much is it that you owe me now?" Nami said offhandedly.

"I…but…GAH!" the swordsman growled in frustration, throwing his hands up.

"No objections? Good. Here, take some money in case it costs anything, and save some to buy presents when you're finished. Do not spend it on beer," Nami said, a hint of a threat in her voice as she pressed a wad of money into Zoro's hand and then shoved him towards Luffy and Chopper.

"Woman, one of these days you are going to hell!" Zoro ground out.

"I know!"

"Nami-san is so wonderful when she is ordering people around!" Sanji crooned.

"Oh, would you shut up? Let's get going," Usopp muttered.

And with that, the Straw Hat pirates separated.

---

Meanwhile, back at the Going Merry, there was a great flash of green and red. Shanks, still clad in the 'Playboy Sugerplum Fairy' outfit, appeared about fifteen feet above the main deck. He floated there for a few seconds, staring down at the ship which was far more far away than it should have been. The red-haired pirate then let out a cry as gravity decided to reacquaint itself with him and send him crashing to the ground.

WHAM!

Shanks lay there for a few minutes, twitching. He then sat up, rubbing his head. "Ah…this must be Luffy's ship then!" He grinned, standing up and brushing himself off before beginning to take a look around.

"Not bad…not bad at all. Looks like he's doing pretty well for himself," he murmured, smiling.

Suddenly, there was another flash of green and red, and the newly-made Spirit's wand came tumbling from the sky and landed on his head. Apparently it had finally caught up with him.

Shanks gave a cry of pain, reaching out to snatch the object before it could fall to the ground. He gave the wand a glare, but unfortunately for him the glare that was known to scare away Sea Kings didn't work so well on inanimate objects.

"Stupid wand…" the red-haired pirate muttered, stuffing it into his pocket. "I'm a pirate, not a damn fairy! Stupid thing doesn't even work…"

Apparently the wand, in spite of being inanimate, did not like being called stupid. It proceeded to give Shanks a rather nasty shock, whom in turn yelped and pulled out the wand to glare at it again.

"I hate you," he scowled at it. The wand simply sat there, looking merry with it's bright stripes of white and red.

After a few more minutes of glaring Shanks huffed and jammed the wand back into his pocket before beginning to look around. Odd…you'd think with this being Luffy's ship and all it'd be a lot louder.

"Luffy?" The red-haired pirate called, his voice echoing through the empty bay. "LUFFY?"

Upon receiving no response, Shanks began to search. He checked everywhere, the galley, the cabins, the bathroom, the storage room, everywhere! But still, he found no one.

"Arrrghhh, where are they?" he demanded to the empty sky.

It was then that a thought struck him. It was the day before Christmas…maybe they had all gone Christmas shopping?

Sighing, Shanks hopped off of the ship and began walking towards town. "No, I'm not using you again," he snapped to his wand, which had remained silent. "Stop mocking me."

---

The line to see Santa was insanely long, wrapping all the way around the square. It was packed full of kids, excited ones, crying ones, whining ones. And then there were the kids poor parents, many of which looked exhausted and a bit annoyed.

Zoro felt very out of place, standing in the line with his arms crossed in front of him and glaring at every child whom dared to even attempt to cut in front of him. There was no way in Hell he was waiting in this line any longer than he had to!

Luffy and Chopper stood in front of him, babbling excitedly and jumping up and down. Their excitement had only grown as they neared the great big sleigh at the center of the square. Really, Zoro was expecting them both to explode like one of Usopp's experiments at this rate.

Fortunately the two never got around to exploding, as at long last they were next in line.

"Next!" the surly looking elf whom was directing the line called out.

Chopper looked back at Luffy and Zoro, eyes wide with excitement.

"Go, Chopper! Go!" Luffy cried, jumping up and down. Zoro just nodded. The reindeer gave a small squeak of glee before making his way up the small green steps to the sleigh where Santa sat. He then plopped onto Santa's lap, gazing up at him with wide eyes.

"Ho ho ho! What would you like for Christmas little…um…boy?" Santa asked, laughing merrily.

Chopper blinked, seemingly at loss for words. "Um…I…ah…"

Santa watched Chopper for a few moments, glancing nervously back towards the long line of still waiting children, before laughing and shaking his head. "It's all right if you can't think of anything, I...ah…know what's in your heart!"

"Really?" Chopper gasped.

"Yes!" Santa said calmly, grabbing Chopper by the shoulders and turning him towards the camera. "Now smile!"

There was a great flash of light and Chopper was ushered off of the sleigh.

"Okay, n-" The elf was cut off as Luffy practically knocked him over in his rush to get to Santa. The rubber pirate hopped onto Ol' Saint Nick's lap with a wide grin.

"Oof! What the- Ah...I mean…ho oh ho! What would you like for Christmas, little boy?" Santa asked.

Luffy stared at Santa for a moment, his brow furrowing. Then his eyes widened. "ACE?"

Chopper glanced back at the sleigh, eyes widening. "Oh my gosh, it IS Ace! Hi, Ace!"

Zoro's eyes widened a bit. What was Luffy's brother doing up there?

'Santa' froze, then quickly covered Luffy's mouth. "Shhhh, I'm Santa, remember?"

Luffy blinked. "…You're Santa? And you never told me?" he gasped.

"No!" Ace exclaimed, then said in a whisper "Look, I ran out of cash and needed some, so I just took up this job for the holidays," he explained.

"Oh…that's so cool!" Luffy cried, his expression one of complete adoration for his brother.

"Right, cool," Ace said with a small grin. "Just don't tell anyone else, all right?"

"I won't, I promise!" Luffy said cheerfully.

"Yeah…maybe I'll come visit you guys later or some-"

"HEY, what's the holdup?" a disgruntled parent yelled from the line.

"Yeah, hurry up already! I've been waiting here for hours!"

"Ahhh! Um…ho ho ho!" Ace forced a belly-laugh, waving. "I'll be just one more minute with this little boy here!"

"I'm not little," Luffy pouted.

"Oh hush," Ace muttered, ruffling the boy's hair affectionately.

Meanwhile, a few blocks down, a certain Marine captain and Sergeant were walking through town.

"Oh, Smoker-taisa ! What do you think? Would Hina-san prefer this scarf or this one?" Tashigi inquired, holding up two practically identical scarves.

"I don't know, just pick one," Smoker growled, waving his hand. "I can't believe we got stuck here…honestly, those stupid officers…say I'm working too hard and need a vacation…" he grumbled. "They even took my Jutte…bastards…"

"Oh, they had your best interests at heart, Taisa. Besides, it's the holidays!" Tashigi said with a smile. "You deserve a break- AHHH!" Her smile fell as she tripped and fell inches from a display of expensive glass figures.

Smoker sighed, shaking his head and turning away as Tashigi stood and began to frantically apologize to the store owner. Sometimes he really wondered how that woman hadn't managed to accidentally slice off an arm with that sword of hers, given how klutzy she was…

He looked out at the town square, where a huge line had built up filled with children wanted to see Santa Claus. The marine captain sighed and shook his head. Crazy kids…

"ACE!"

Smoker blinked, surprised. Portgas was here?

He glanced around for the source of the yell, finally spotting "Straw Hat" Luffy sitting on the lap of "Santa", whom Smoker immediately recognized as "Firefist" Ace.

The two "D" brothers in one place? Who cared that he was on vacation, this was too good of a chance to pass up. That and he still had to get revenge on Portgas for the last time that they'd met and he'd gone and scorched the marine captain's bed…

Biting down on the two cigars in his mouth, Smoker began to walk up to the two pirates, whom were now putting on the ruse of not knowing each other. Smoker's eyes narrowed and he sucked in a breath…

"STRAW HAT! PORTGAS! YOU TWO ARE UNDER ARREST!" he bellowed.

Luffy and Ace both took on identical looks of confusion as they looked for the source of the yelling. Finally they spotted Smoker and Luffy's wide grin came into place, while Ace's lazy one took shape.

"Oh, Taisa! Hello there!" Ace drawled lazily from behind the white beard he was wearing.

"Merry Christmas, Smokey!" Luffy chirped.

Smoker scowled. "I said you two are under arrest!" He snapped.

"Aw, come on Smokey! I don't wanna fight you now, it's Christmas Eve!" Luffy whined.

"I don't _care_!" the marine growled, crossing his arms. "You two are under arrest."

"Aw, you really think you're gonna arrest us, Taisa? We both know I'll just end up doing you another 'favor'. Sheesh, it's only been one week! I knew I was good, but damn! You really like this game, don't ya?" Ace said with a cocky grin.

Smoker sputtered, feeling his face grow hot. "PORTGAS!" he snarled, instinctively reaching for the jutte on his back…

Only to find that it wasn't there!

The marine captain scowled, and glanced around for another weapon. His eyes finally settled on one of the giant candy canes being used as decoration.

It would have to do.

Smoker reached out and yanked the candy cane from the ground, swinging it experimentally. He then looked back at Ace and Luffy, whom were both blinking at him. They then burst into laughter.

"Oh, in the spirit of Christmas, Taisa is going to attack us with a candy cane?" Ace snorted. Luffy was too busy laughing to comment on this turn of events.

Smoker's face became a grin as the bottom half of his body suddenly became smoke and he propelled himself forward with a roar.

Both Luffy and Ace's grins fell.

"Oh…shit," Ace muttered.

"RUUUUN!" Luffy cried.

With that they both jumped from the sleigh and began to run as fast they could from the candy-cane wielding, smoky terror that was Captain Smoker. Ace would occasionally throw fireballs in Smoker's direction, but he was having trouble aiming because his fake beard kept blocking his vision.

"Come on Taisa, be reasonable!"

"Smokey, it's Christmas! You're mean!"

"HOLD STILL!"

Zoro groaned, slapping his forehead. Why couldn't they ever just go into town without some sort of chaos happening?

After taking a few moments to reflect on this, the swordsman pulled two katana from their sheaths and ran after his captain.

"GODDAMNIT, LUFFY!"

The children whom had been waiting in line to see Santa all stood in silence, watching as Santa hurled fire balls at the scary, candy-cane wielding man while the boy beside him laughed, while a bit behind them some green-haired guy with two katana ran after them screaming.

"…Was that Roronoa Zoro?"

"Yeah…and Straw Hat Luffy?"

"…that couldn't have been Captain Smoker, could it?"

"Mommy, why does the scary marine want to arrest Santa Claus?" a little boy was saying from the crowd.

"I…I don't know, Billy. Just stay close to me, I don't want any of Santa's fireballs hitting you…"

Chopper stood there, blinking. He then glanced towards the confused crowds and gave a nervous laugh, hopping onto the sleigh and trying to get everyone's attention.

"Um…Santa will be back in awhile, so everyone just sit tight!" he said, waving his arms.

"Who are you?" one of the kids in the crowd demanded.

"Me? I'm…um….one of Santa's reindeer! I'm..uh…Rudolph!"

"I thought Ruldolph had a red nose!"

"I-I do, I just have a cold right now! ASSHOLES! DON'T INSULT MY NOSE!" Chopper cried.

The crowd all stared blankly at him.

"Ummm…ANYWAY! Let's all sing Christmas carols while we wait for Santa to come back, okay?" Chopper said, smiling.

"YAAAAY!"

"Okay um…Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way!" Chopper began to sing, and the crowd began to sing along. _I hope Luffy and Ace get back here soon…_

---

Shanks trudged through the city streets, grumbling to himself. After spending an hour or so searching for Luffy he had decided to try and buy a drink, only to discover there was yet another draw-back to the whole "Spirit of Christmas" deal.

No one could see or hear him.

This really put a damper on his plan, how was he supposed to get a good shot on Luffy showing some Christmas Spirit if he couldn't talk the boy into doing so? This meant he'd actually have to hunt down the boy and catch him the act!

He was stuck as some Playboy Sugerplum Fairy with a wand with an attitude, and he couldn't even get himself a drink to make it sort of enjoyable? This whole thing sucked. He was going to kick that damn Spirit's ass when he got a hold of him.

"Stupid Spirit…" Shanks grumbled, kicking at the ground. "And I _still_ can't find Luffy! You'd think with all the trouble that he causes he wouldn't be that hard to spot!" he fumed.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Shanks blinked, looking towards the source of the scream…only to see two blurs of red and white rush past him.

"WHOOO!"

"Oh come on Taisa, aren't you kind of overreacting a bit?"

The red-haired pirate stood there, blinking. Hadn't that been Luffy and Ace?

It was then that another blur rushed past him, this one gray and white.

"PORTGAS! STRAW HAT! BY THE TIME I'M DONE WITH YOU YOU'LL BE BREATHING THROUGH YOUR EYELIDS!"

Ace replied with something very, very sick about how he wouldn't be able to properly blow on certain things if he was breathing out of his eyelids.

"PORTGAS!"

Shanks blinked once more. Was that Smoker, the marine captain he'd been hearing about lately?

"DON'T TOUCH MY CAPTAIN!" Finally, a blur of green flew past the red-haired pirate captain.

Shanks simply stood there for a few minutes, frowning. Okay... so there was Luffy and Ace…Ace was in a Santa outfit…and…they were being chased by Smoker…whom was being chased by Roronoa Zoro?

…This was all very, very strange.

Finally, after working everything out, Shanks concluded that he'd rather not have his one shot at getting out of these stupid clothes be murdered by a raging marine captain.

"LUFFY! ACE! WAIT UP!" Shanks cried, chasing after Zoro.

He followed them through the streets for awhile, slipping on ice here and there and yelling. Finally he remembered that he was a Spirit and then the trio couldn't hear him and cursed his own stupidity before pulling his wand out of his pocket.

"Okay, I hate you, but you'd better save my one chance at getting out of this mess!" Shanks declared, waving the wand at the chaos in front of him.

There was a great flash of green and red that caused everyone involved in the case to skid to a stop and shield their eyes. Then all four of them were blasted in random directions, snow flying in their wake.

After the light cleared away Shanks stood there with a smoldering wand, blinking at the now empty, and quite Luffy-less street.

"DAMNIT!" he cried, throwing the wand to the ground once again.

---

"Smoker-Taisa! Smoker-Taisa!"

Smoker groaned, cracking open one eye to see Tashigi standing above him. "Tashigi?" He groaned, sitting up and rubbing his head. He looked around, noting he was back where he'd started and was lying in a pile of snow, being stared at by many worried shoppers. "What happened?"

"I'm not entirely sure, sir. You just ran off after Straw Hat and Portgas and you all ran off…then about twenty minutes later there was this great big flash of light and you came flying through the air!" Tashigi exclaimed.

"I see…"Smoker muttered, rubbing his head. "Where's Straw Hat?"

"Straw Hat? Um…I don't know, we haven't seen them since you all ran off," Tashigi said, glancing around.

"Damnit, okay let's start searching!" Smoker declared, standing and beginning to walk away. Tashigi grabbed Smoker's arm.

"Taisa, please, relax! You're getting all worked up, it's Christmas Eve! You'll see Ace-san later! Please just rest for now, you're on vacation!" she pleaded.

"So?" Smoker growled, but even then he was softening. It _was_ the holiday's and those two hadn't been doing anything wrong…

"Just come along, we still have shopping to do anyway!" Tashigi said with a smile, beginning to drag Smoker along. The marine captain grumbled, but allowed himself to be dragged along.

He supposed he could wait until after Christmas.

---

**To Be Continued…**

_Well, that was fun to write! I hope you all enjoyed it! Please review, because reviews are actually what fuels Santa's sleigh. If I don't get enough reviews, Santa may crash and Christmas will be ruined forever!_

**Next Chapter:** _Luffy and Zoro have been separated…well, I suppose this is the opportune moment for Christmas shopping, right? But Christmas shopping is always crazy the day before Christmas…will they be able to get all the shopping done? And how are all the other Straw Hats doing? _


	3. The Last Minute Shopping Rush

**- The Best Gift-**

**A One Piece Christmas fanfic by Digitaldreamer**

**Chapter Three: The Last-Minute Shopping Rush**

_Gah…I'm so tired and stressed out. So much work to do..._

_So…one hundred and eleven readers, and not many reviews…ah well, it's not about the reviews, though really, if you read this and leave a review it'd be nice. _

_Right…anyhoo. So my birthday party was yesterday even though my actually birthday isn't until the twenty-sixth…I had the time of my life! My boyfriend came and ah, things were grand…just, squee. _

_Yeah, it was fun._

_So now here I am, one day before Christmas, trying to pull together two more chapters of this fic. Can I do it? I hope so._

_I apologize, as this chapter isn't betaed because I didn't have time to find anyone. Gomen nasai!_

---

"Luffy? Hey, Luffy! Come on, wake up!"

Luffy slowly opened his eyes, the blurry vision of Ace in his Santa hat with his beard askew coming into focus.

"Nii-chan? What happened?" He asked, blinking and sitting up. He glanced this way and that, looking horribly confused. "Where'd Smokey go?"

"Huh? Taisa?" Ace shrugged. "I dunno, I haven't seen him since the explosion."

"Oh. Okay." Luffy took his brother's hand and allowed himself to be pulled to his feet, glancing around to see where they were. He and Ace were standing in the middle of one of the main shopping streets in the town, though all the shopping seemed to have paused in favor of staring at the Santa Claus and strange boy whom had fallen from the sky.

"Mommy, its Santa!"

"No it's not, Dolly…j-just leave them alone."

After a few moments Luffy glanced back at Ace. "Where's Zoro?"

Ace shrugged once again. "No idea. I'm sure he's okay though, from what you've told me about him."

Luffy grinned. "Yeah, I'm sure he's fine!"

Ace grinned as well. "Right. Come on, let's get back to the square. I'm sure he's around here somewhere, and I need to get back to work." Luffy nodded, and the two began their trek to the town square.

After about fifteen minutes (these minutes involving things like Ace trying to keep Luffy off of any meat vendor that happened to come into his line of vision, Luffy trying to wake up Ace after he suddenly fell asleep in the middle of the street, and a rather interesting incident involving a fake reindeer, a star, and a lady who smelled of old cheese) the two finally made it to the square, where Chopper was attempting to calm soon to be mob of people who came to see Santa.

"WE WANNA SEE SANTA!"

"YEAH, WHERE IS HE?"

"H-he'll be a few more minutes!" Chopper squeaked nervously, waving his hooves. "H-how about another Christmas carol? Uh.. THE RED-NOSED-"

"BOOOOOOOOO! NO MORE SINGING! WE WANT SANTA!"

"SANTA! SANTA!"

"Um…um…"

Ace, whom had been watching the chaos, quickly adjusted his beard and costume before sneaking over. He then suddenly popped out from behind the sleigh with a loud "HO HO HO!", causing Chopper to scream and fall off the sleigh.

"H-here he is everyone! Santa!" Chopper called from the ground. The entire crowd cheered.

"YAAAAAAAAY! SANTA!"

"WE LOVE YOU SANTA!"

:"I WANT A PONY, SANTA!"

Ace just stood there, chuckling and waving. Chopper stood and waved as well, though after a few moments he glared at Ace.

"Where were you?" He demanded.

"Taisa was hard to shake off. We managed, though. Thanks for holding down the fort, Chopper." Ace explained out of the corner of his mouth.

Chopper blushed. "A-asshole! I didn't WANT to do it or anything! God, you jerk! Don't thank me!" However, even as he spoke, he was grinning and dancing his glee.

Luffy, meanwhile, was looking around at everything else in the square. There sure were a lot of shiny things, and lots of people, and OH, there was food over there! It was then that he remembered that he still had to buy all of his nakama presents, and now seemed to be the perfect time!

With this in mind, Luffy suddenly rushed over and grabbed Chopper. "CHOPPER! Come on! We have to go buy presents for people!" He declared.

"W-wha? Presents?" Chopper squeaked.

"Yup! We gotta make sure that we get everyone really good presents!" Luffy declared. "So we gotta go look now! Hahaha, this is gonna be so fun!"

"Shopping? But what about Zoro?" Ace inquired, raising an eyebrow.

Luffy stopped in his tracks for a moment, thinking. "Well…I don't think that explosion hurt him, and since he's not with me now's the perfect time to get him something…do you think maybe if he comes here that you could tell him what I'm doing? Pleeeaaase Ace? I really wanna go shopping so I can get him the best present _ever_! Pleeeaaase?" He pleaded, shifting from foot to foot.

"Oh…alright. Just get moving! I have to get back to work! Good luck!" Ace grinned, waving as he got back onto the sleigh. As soon as this promise was made he turned back to the raging mob, forcing another belly laugh and waving for the kids to start coming up to sleigh.

"YOSH! It's alright! Come on Chopper, let's go! We're gonna find the best presents ever!" Luffy crowed, grabbing Chopper and dragging him through the town.

"Right! Best presents ever!" Chopper repeated, beaming.

---

Roronoa Zoro was not happy.

He was covered in snow, he had no idea where he was, and he'd lost Luffy!

"GODDAMNIT!" He growled, hands clenching into fists. A few passerby's shot him terrified looks and made a point of shuffling by faster than usual.

"Where could he be?" The swordsman continued as he stalked along the snow covered streets.

"SANTA!"

Zoro blinked, hearing this nearby cry. He glanced over to see a kid tugging his mothers arm. The woman sighed and shook her head. "Fine, we'll go see Santa. He's in the town square, come on." With that, she and her child began to walk down the street.

The town square? Maybe Luffy had wandered there…

With this in mind, Zoro followed the woman and child, trying his best to not make it seem like he was doing so.

"Mommy, that scary green-haired man is following us…"

"Just ignore him, sweetie."

Zoro paused, flinching. He hadn't wanted the kid to see him…

"But he's scary!"

"Sweetie…"

After a few more minutes of the boy's whining, the mother sighed and turned to Zoro. "Sir, why are you following us?" She demanded, carefully stepping in front of her child as if to shield him if the swordsman turned out to be dangerous.

Zoro blinked, then scratched his head, feeling like he'd been caught doing something bad. "Um…sorry…I heard that you were heading towards Town Square, and I need to go there as well. A friend of mine might be there, and I don't know how to get there so I…ah…followed you. Sorry." He muttered.

The woman stared at Zoro for a few moments before smiling and chuckling. "It's alright! Come on, we'll take you there."

Sighing with relief, Zoro sidled up next to the two of them and they continued their journey.

They traveled in silence for awhile, the boy casting shy glances towards the swordsman all the while. Finally, he spoke up.

"Why do you have three swords? You're like that pirate, Roronoa Zoro!"

"Ah…"

"Are you trying be like him? Because I can see why you'd wanna be like him, he's really cool!"

"Oh…is that so?"

"Yeah, he's awesome! Everyone else thinks he's scary, but I think he's really cool! And so his captain, Monkey D. Luffy! They're both so cool!"

Zoro just chuckled, shaking his head.

"I wonder where they are now…I wonder what pirates do on Christmas? I hope they have fun too….no one should be sad on Christmas."

Zoro smiled. "I'm sure they're have a good time."

The boy grinned. "Yeah!" His eyes then widened. "SANTA!" He cried, releasing his mother's hand and rushing into the town square, jumping up and down to try and see over peoples heads to get a good look at the sleigh in the center.

Zoro stood there, looking around. Where could Luffy be? He almost went right to looking, but he paused and turned towards the woman whom had led him there. "Thanks for leading me here." He said with a nod, before turning and beginning to walk away.

"You're welcome! Merry Christmas!" The woman called behind him, laughter in her voice.

The swordsman shook his head, smiling in spite of himself. People were so strange.

He then spotted Ace, sitting on the sleigh and chuckling. Frowning, Zoro rushed over to the sleigh. "ACE!" He called.

Ace looked over at Zoro. "Shhhhhh, it's _Santa_!" He hissed.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Where's Luffy?" The swordsman demanded.

"Oh, he figured you'd be okay, so he and Chopper went shopping for Christmas presents. That's what he told me to tell you, anyway." Ace said with a shrug.

Zoro's eyes widened. "Shopping?" He cried. "But I have all their money! GAH!" With that, he charged down the street, shouting his crewmate's names.

"WAIT! You're going the wrong way!" Ace called, but Zoro was already too far away to hear him.

---

The farm where Christmas trees were sold on this particular island was beautiful. All of the trees were gorgeous and full, ranging from all sizes. All the trees sold at the shop that was run by the owner of the farm were hand-selected, and supposedly there wasn't a bad one in the bunch.

Maybe that was why all the places where the trees were actually _sold_ were picked completely clean.

Sanji and Usopp stood in the middle of the small, fenced in area atop the heavily trod upon snow, which was covered with pine needles and branches. There wasn't a tree to be seen.

"So…you're all sold out?" Usopp repeated, eyes wide.

"Sorry boys. We just sold the last one to some weird kid named 'Charlie Brown', and that one was pretty crappy." The store owner said, shaking his head.

"But…Nami-san said she wanted us to get the perfect tree! I cannot bare to deny my Nami-san of her perfect tree!" Sanji cried.

"She'll kill us if we don't bring back _something_! This is the last place in town! Don't you have _anything_?" Usopp asked. "Please, we're desperate here!"

The store owner stared at them for a moment before sighing and shaking his head. "Well…we do have _one_ left…it's artificial, though, and you'll have to assemble it yourself." He said, gesturing to a large box sitting next to the shed.

"Well…I guess if it's our only option…" Usopp muttered, reaching into his pocket the money. "I guess we'll take it."

---

"That will be seven hundred belli, sir."

Zoro sighed, reaching into his pocket and forking over the money before taking the bag the shop owner handed him.

He'd been traversing the town for hours, but he had yet to actually find the rubber boy. Each shop he'd visited bore the unmistakable mark that he and Chopper had been there, but he had yet to see Luffy himself. Of course, each shop he visited made Zoro pay for whatever Luffy and Chopper had bought. Amazingly though, he hadn't had to pay for any damage caused by his captain yet.

After an hour or so of searching and paying for the gifts, Zoro had finally stopped being annoyed and decided to start actually shopping while he searched. He doubted that he would have time for shopping by the time he actually found the boy, anyway.

So far he'd managed to find something for Chopper and Usopp, and he found a book that he assumed would keep Robin and her damn oh-so-mysterious, knowing gaze away from him for awhile. He also bought something for Nami, hoping it would help pay off his debt to her, and he even broke down and bought a little something for that shitty love cook.

Now Zoro still had his rubber captain to find, but he was starting to hope he wouldn't actually find him until _after_ he found a present for him.

But what should he get Luffy? The boy was easily amused, you'd think he wouldn't be all that hard to shop for! But Zoro didn't want to just get Luffy meat or anything like that, he wanted to try and get something special.

And so he found himself searching through a random gift shop, hoping to find something suitable. The swordsman would pick up some random nick nack and look it over, then shake his head and place it wherever he'd found it.

Nothing seemed like the right thing, for some reason.

It was then that he spotted it, sitting on a shelf in the very back of the store. It was a small, fuzzy plushie of a monkey with a tiny straw hat placed upon its head, the last one on the shelf.

Zoro stared at it, jaw dropping. It was perfect!

Someone in a dark jacket suddenly shuffled past him, heading for the plushie. Zoro's eyes widened as he watched the young man in a sleek jacket with perfectly combed, dark hair make his way towards the plushie.

The swordsman scowled, catching up with the man in several strides. He wasn't going to let this guy take Luffy's present!

The man glanced at Zoro, and his eyes narrowed as he began to pick up his pace. Zoro's eyes narrowed as well and he began to pick up his pace. The man responded by going even faster, so Zoro's response was to go even faster than that by breaking into a jog. Upon seeing this, the man broke into a run, Zoro following suit.

The two raced down the aisle, knocking aside last minute shoppers and nearly breaking a few displays, both going as fast as they could.

Zoro was pulling ahead, he reached for the toy…

And the man suddenly shoved him away. Zoro let out a cry, kicking out his leg and knocking away the other man. Both the swordsman and the other man slammed into the wall, causing the monkey to shake on it's shelf.

Zoro grunted, getting to his feet and glaring at the man, whom was rising as well. The two glared at each other for a minute, neither moving. Finally Zoro reached for the toy, as did the man, each grabbing an arm.

"I saw it first." Zoro growled, fixing a glare upon the man that was known to cause many fearsome warriors to pee their pants.

The man simply sneered back. "No, I believe I did. You can't have it, bastard, this is for my girlfriend."

"Yeah, well it's for _my_ captain."

"Too bad, you can't have it."

"It's _mine_!"

"No, it's _mine!"_

The man reached over and shoved Zoro, whose upper lip curled as he reached for the katana at his side. He then paused before sliding it back. His opponent was unarmed and they were in a store, he would win this fight fair and square.

"I don't want to fight you, alright? I saw it first." He growled through gritted teeth.

"Too bad! It's mine, asshole!" With a yell, the man swung a fist at Zoro, whose gaze darkened.

"You leave me no choice, then…."

Meanwhile, Nami and Robin were wandering through the streets, both carrying several shopping bags. They had already gotten the decorations, which Robin had sent back to the ship using a few helping hands, and they were now busy doing Christmas shopping.

"Well, I'd say we got just about everyone, and at wonderfully low prices too!" Nami said, grinning.

"Yes, I would say we've done fairly well, Navigator-san." Robin said with a smile. "I just hope Cook-san doesn't get too excited when he discovers that we _did_buy mistletoe…"

Nami shook her head. "As long as I don't get stuck under it with him." She declared, waving her hand.

Robin just chuckled.

"Hey…why is there a crowd around that store?" Nami wondered, suddenly stopping and pointing to the shop across the street, where a small crowd had gathered.

"I don't know, Navigator-san. Shall we investigate?"

"Of course."

With that, the two women made their way into that crowd.

"FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!"

"Dang, he must _really_ want that thing…"

"Who do you think is going to win?"

"My bet's on the green-haired guy."

"I dunno, the other guy's pretty hot too. Too bad he's taken…"

"You think maybe the other one's still single?"

"Dunno, he was talking about getting that plushie for someone…maybe he already has someone."

"Awwwwww, darn."

Nami frowned, tapping one women on her shoulder. "Um…excuse me? What's going on in there?"

The girl glanced over at Nami and gestured towards the store. "Two guys started fighting over some gift. Apparently it was the last one in the store."

It was then that a blur of green suddenly rushed through the parted crowd, yelling something like "IT'S MINE, DAMNIT!" This blur was followed by a yelling young man, whom was being restrained by the storeowner explaining that the other man _had_ paid for the gift.

Both Nami and Robin glanced at each other.

"Was that…"

"…Swordsman-san?"

"…Nah. There's no way he'd be crazy enough to fight with someone over some plushie. Come on, let's get out of here." Nami said, waving her hand as the crowd began to disperse.

"Of course, Navigator-san."

---

"Oh, what about this?" Chopper asked, waving a pack of art supplies in front of Luffy's face. "Do you think Usopp would like it?"

Luffy looked at it for a moment before grinning and giving Chopper a thumbs up. "You bet!"

"YAY! Okay, I got everybody then! How about you?"

The rubber pirate frowned thoughtfully, counting off his crewmates in his head. "Everyone but Zoro!" He finally declared with a nod.

But…what should he get Zoro? He was completely stumped. Nothing in this shop seemed like anything the swordsman would like…but he just had to find the perfect gift for him! But he couldn't seem to find any sort of gift…

"Oh my, you look worried. What's wrong, cutie?" The girl at the counter asked, smiling slyly at him.

Luffy glanced up at the girl, then shook his head. "I can't think of anything to get for my friend…"

"Ohhh, your friend?" The girl asked.

"Yeah! He's my best friend in the whole world and he's been with me since forever! He's really strong and fun and just the best first mate I could ask for! I know I can count on him for anything…and he's really, really important to me, so I want to get him something special."

"Oh really…" The girl beamed, eyes twinkling. "Well, what does he like?"

"Um…swords and beer…and sleeping." Chopper piped up.

"That's….not much to go by." The girl frowned.

Luffy shook his head. "Nope…" He looked back at the shelves, eyes sweeping over its various items…but nothing seemed to be something Zoro would like…

"Oh, I know! How about this?" The girl chirped, pulling something shining and silvery from a shelf and holding it out. Luffy stared at it. It was seemingly simple silver chain, with a pendent shaped like three swords crossing each other. In front of all three of these was a thin strip of metal.

"What is it?" Luffy inquired, taking the necklace and blinking at it.

"It's a warriors charm. It's supposed to bring good luck in battle, and the blank part is the really special part! If the warrior ever finds someone who they love and carves that persons name onto the necklace, that person will be with them forever! Isn't it so romantic?" The girl cooed, clasping her hands together. "It's a very popular item."

Luffy stared at the necklace for a few moments. Well…it was a pretty cool idea. Maybe it worked for friends too? And the swords looked pretty neat. the boy beamed, taking the necklace. "It's perfect! I'll take it!"

"Great! I'll ring it up, and that art set while I'm at it!" The girl said, taking the necklace. After ringing that up, she took the art set Chopper was holding and began working on that.

"Luffy? Chopper?"

Both Luffy and Chopper blinked in surprise, turning around to see Zoro standing there, holding several bags and looking a bit frazzled.

"ZORO!" Luffy cried, rushing over to wrap his arms around the swordsman. "There you are! I was getting kind of worried that you wouldn't find us!" He said with a laugh.

"Uh…yeah…" Zoro felt his face grow hot at the close contact and something warm stir in his chest, but ignored it. He gently pushed Luffy away. "Don't run off like that again, alright?" He said sternly.

Luffy laughed again. "Don't worry, I won't."

"Yay, Zoro's here!" Chopper cheered, jumping up and down.

The girl at the counter cleared her throat, trying to get the boys attention. "Here, that'll be two hundred belli." She said, holding out a small bag. Luffy took it, then glanced towards Zoro.

"Um…I don't have any money." He said, scratching his head.

"Which was why you shouldn't have run off." Zoro muttered, digging into his pocket and pulling out the last of the money Nami had given him. He counted it off before handing it to the cashier, thankful that they had enough.

"Thank you!" The girl chirped. "Have a Merry Christmas!"

"You too!" Luffy and Chopper chirped merrily as they stepped out of the store.

"Phew! Finally done!" Chopper said with a sigh.

"Yosh! It's snowing again!" Luffy cried, dropping his bags onto the side walk and rushing out into the street, arms spread wide. Zoro opened his mouth to call the boy back, but stopped, shaking his head as Chopper ran after him.

The swordsman simply stood and watched as Luffy stood there in the drifting snow.. His tongue stuck out to catch the falling snowflakes, though more got caught in his black hair, which ruffled in the wind. His nose and cheeks were tinted pink in the chilly air, his breath coming out in puffs as he gazed up at the sky, his smile brighter than the shining white snow. It was there that one could see the kind of innocent purity one rarely saw in the world anymore, the kind purity that even rivaled the freshly fallen snow.

Zoro couldn't help but think that he'd never seen a more wonderful sight. In spite of himself, he was smiling once again.

"Luffy! Chopper! Zoro!" Nami's yell suddenly broke through the moment, causing Zoro to snap out of it and shake his head. Where had _that_ come from?

"Nami!" Luffy spun around, grinning. "It's snowing!"

"Yes, yes, great. Come on, we're heading back to the ship!" The navigator stated as she walked up to them with Robin close behind.

"Did you get all your shopping done, Swordsman-san?" She asked as she stepped up to him, her eyes twinkling.

Zoro rolled his eyes. "I did."

"Oh, that's good."

"Come on, grab the bags, we're going!" Nami called again, beckoning for everyone to follow her. "God, it's a good thing we found you three, even with Chopper we probably still wouldn't see you again until New Years…"

---

Shanks groaned, collapsing into a wooden bench. Hours upon hours of searching, and still no Luffy…where could he be? He'd seen all the signs of the boy being around, but he still hadn't seen the boy!

It was then that a horrible, horrible thought struck the red-haired pirate captain. What if he couldn't find the boy until AFTER Christmas? What if he was stuck like this until _next_ year? In fact…what if Christmas was canceled, but he was still stuck like this?

Shanks twitched at the thought. He would _not_ let that happen!

He whipped out his wand and began shaking it furiously. "You teleported me before! Take me to Luffy now! I don't wanna be stuck like this forever!"

The wand suddenly clicked, and then a cool, mechanical female voice came from it. "We're sorry, but your time for the 'teleportation service' has run out! Please deposit twenty-five belli for the next five minutes!"

Shanks stared at the wand for several seconds before cursing and throwing the thing to the ground.

"Stupid wand!"

---

**To Be Continued…**

_Pwhew! I'm tired, but that was a lot of fun to write! I do hope you all enjoyed that as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please, if you read this and enjoyed it, do tell me! I really love reviews, they're one of the best gifts anyone could give me!_

_So please, review!_

**Next Chapter:** _The Straw Hats have faced untold dangers, fought life and death battles, and had countless adventures…but can they handle the challenge of decorating their own ship? Is Luffy right? Will this be the Best Christmas ever? Will Shanks ever manage his task? Find out in the last chapter of The Best Gift!_


	4. The Best Christmas Ever?

**-The Best Gift-**

**A One Piece Christmas Fanfic by Digitaldreamer**

**Chapter Four: The Best Christmas Ever?**

_Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope you enjoy this last chapter! Don't forget to leave a review!_

_Consider this a gift to all of you, especially to all of you who have me on author alert and watch me and review all my fics. This is for you guys, you all rock!_

_Once again, this isn't betaed, so I aplogize in advance for any spelling or grammar mistakes!_

_---_

"...You mean to tell me you got an artificial tree?"

"I apologize, Nami-san! Please, allow me to kiss your glorious feet and try and find a way to repent for this horrible sin!"

The return to the Going Merry had proved to be rather depressing as Sanji and Usopp revealed the spoils of their quest to find a tree. Both the cook and sharpshooter stood in front of the large white box, Usopp looking annoyed while Sanji seemed stuck in a permenant bow of a apology.

Nami stared at the white box for a minute before sighing and shaking her head. "It's alright, you did try your best. We'll just have to make the best of it. We can put it up in the galley."

Both Luffy and Chopper looked completely heartbroken.

"B-but…a fake tree?" Luffy cried. "It won't be the same!"

"Does Santa allow fake trees? What if he doesn't come because we have a fake tree?" Chopper sobbed.

"Relax." Zoro growled. "It looks the same as a fake tree, as long as we leave cookies for the fat boy to get even fatter with, I doubt it'll matter."

"…kay."

"Okay everyone, let's get started!" Nami declared.

And so, the horror that was known as the assembly of an artificial Christmas tree began.

"Okay…let's sort out these branches first, put the K's there, the H's there…"

"But they're color-coded too! What color are K's?"

"K's are red…I think…"

"Is this an M or an N? There's some weird cross here…"

"I can't tell the difference between the red-orange, blood red, and crimson!"

Eventually, after much turmoil, the branches were sorted and it was time for the actual assembly to begin.

"Okay, we need a row of R branches here…"

'There are no R's!"

"Try the ones with the periwinkle stripes…"

"Why are all these branches marked as B branches? There aren't even any B branches in the diagram!"

"What the hell is a X ½? You can't have a half of a letter!"

While everyone else was busy being horribly confused with the regular branches, Chopper got stuck trying to fix up the large, pointed part that would make up the top of the tree. This involved spreading out all of it's branches and making it look all nice, but seeing how it was larger than he was it was proving rather hard.

"Help! I'm trapped under the top of the tree! HELP! Fake…needles…crushing…ribs…" Chopper squeaked.

Zoro quickly reached over and picked up the tree top, effectively saving their doctor's life.

"Phew…thanks Zoro."

"Don't worry about it."

"ZORO! ZORO! LOOK!"

Zoro sighed, glancing in the direction of his captain's voice. "What is it now, Luffy?"

"Look! It's _Santouryuu: Three-Branch Style!_" Luffy crowed in a dramatic voice. He was standing with one long branch in each hand, while one was in his mouth, and as apparently attempting some sort of sword move. It really looked more like he was just randomly flailing his limbs.

The first mate just stood there, staring blankly at Luffy for a few moments before groaning and walking up to the boy, pulling the branch from his mouth. Luffy coughed, spitting out a few fake needles.

"No, Luffy. Just no." He said, shaking his head.

"Awww."

"GUYS, FOCUS!"

After several hours of turmoil, the tree was finally complete, and everyone began decorating other things. Unfortunately, everyone seemed to have different ideas for decorating. Whenever someone would put something up, someone else would take it back down when they weren't looking. This went on for quite some time before Nami finally started assigning roles.

Robin, Usopp, and Zoro were given the task of setting up the lights and the things outside the ship. Things went just fine, they managed to wrap garland around all the rails and the mast and everything.

It was when the electronics came into play that things got hectic.

Now see, Usopp got a bit crazy with the lights. He worked until twilight, rigging it so just about everything would light up, flash, and do all sorts of things. Or at least, that was how it was supposed to go.

"Okay Zoro, plug it in."

"This is stupid. It isn't going to work."

"He's right Sniper-san, there's a bit too much going on here…"

"Just plug it in already!"

"Alright, alright…"

KKKKKKKKZAAAAAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPP!

There was a blinding blue flash that lit up the entire sky for a moment, causing many people back in town to stop and stare. Years from now, people would tell amazing tales of what they thought had happened to cause such a flash, but they would never guess that it was really nothing more than a certain swordsman being deep-fried.

After Usopp was beaten within an inch of his life, it was decided to make the lights quite a bit simpler.

Meanwhile, Luffy and Chopper had finished placing wreaths and various non-breakable objects around the inside of the ship, so Nami had told them to string popcorn to put on the tree in an attempt to keep them quiet. They made a valiant attempt at doing so, when they weren't busy getting their fingers poked.

"One for the tree…." Luffy strung one piece of popcorn onto the string, then popped one into his mouth. "One for me. One for the tree…two for me…"

Chopper giggled, doing the same.

"One for the tree…seventeen for me…"

Nami happened to hear this as she made her way up to the galley from her room. Her eyes narrowed and she quietly snuck up behind Luffy and Chopper.

"Mmm…this popcorn is good…"

WHAM!

"That's for the tree, not for you!" Nami snarled as she knocked both of their heads together.

"NAMI-SWAAAN! You're standing underneath some of my mistletoe of love!" Sanji cooed, his visible eye becoming a heart as he rushed across the room…

And then he found himself with his head smashed into the floor. "Not on your life." Nami growled.

"Nami-san is so beautiful when she's angry!"

Nami stared down at the fallen Sanji for a moment before her gaze softened a bit. Well…it _was_ Christmas, and he _had_ caught her. The orange-haired navigator sighed, quickly squatting down to where the cook lay.

"This doesn't mean anything." She said calmly before grabbing Sanji by the front of his suit and pulling him up so she could kiss him on the lips.

She pulled away after a few moments to see Sanji's stunned face.

"Nami-san-"

"Like I said, this doesn't mean anything. I just hate owing people anything." The navigator smiled, standing and going back to decorating, leaving Sanji behind with a dazed smile on his face.

After the lights were finally done properly and all other things were hung up, the Straw Hats finally worked on the tree. They had a fine time placing ornaments onto it, though there was a small argument over whom should place the star on top. Finally, after drawing straws, Luffy won the right.

He grinned, reaching out and taking the star before walking up to the tree.

"Be careful Luffy, that was expensive…" Nami hissed.

Luffy stood up on his tip toes and stretched his arm, reaching up high to finally place the star a top the tree.

"And we're DONE!" he crowed, his arm snapping back to its normal length. "YOSH!"

Nami stood back, gazing at their work. "I have to admit, it doesn't look too bad…"

"It's so pretty!" Chopper gasped.

"Of course it is, _I _helped work on it!" Usopp said proudly.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Zoro said, rolling his eyes.

"It's not nearly as lovely as Nami-san or Robin-chan!" Sanji huffed.

Robin just laughed.

The crew marveled over their decorating job for awhile, then Sanji brought out some cookies and the usual chaos began. Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper burst into song, Sanji fawned over Nami and Robin with all sorts of goodies, while Zoro occasionally put in a word here and there and a fight ensued at some point.

Just your usual night of craziness on the Going Merry, but there was a feeling there was different from all other nights. There was this special feeling of togetherness there, a joy that had always been present but on this night of all nights made itself known.

At some point during his rendition of "Deck The Halls" while stealing yet another of Usopp's cookies, Luffy suddenly remembered that he needed to wrap his presents. After all, while this Christmas was turning out to be awesome, it wouldn't be the best Christmas ever until he gave everyone their gifts!

And so, with this in mind, Luffy suddenly dropped his pilfered baked good and rushed out the door.

"GOTTA GO WRAP PRESENTS!" He declared loudly as the door slammed behind him.

The crew stared after him, blinking.

The door opened again and Luffy's head poked through it. "NO PEEKING!" With that, he closed the door once again and rushed down the stairs to the trap door that lead to the men's cabin. He somehow managed to unearth the door from the blanket of snow that it was trapped under and hopped inside, landing on the floor with a loud thump.

Luffy glanced around the empty room before grinning and rubbing his hands together. He rushed over to one of the couches and jumped onto it, then peeked behind it. There were all of his gifts, which had been thrown back there in an attempt to hide them as soon as he got back to the ship. Along with these was some wrapping paper, tape, and ribbon, all of which Luffy snatched up and carried to the center of the room.

He proceeded to wrap every gift carefully. Of course, this is Luffy we're talking about, so by 'carefully' we mean 'like a five-year old'. Wrapping paper ended up everywhere, folded haphazardly over gifts and taped down with enough tape to properly wrap ten other gifts. Ribbons and bows were tied to the gifts in an all-together ugly fashion, unless they were the kind that already came made and were made to stick on. These ended up all over various gifts, making several look like ribbon-porcupines, and several got stuck to Luffy as well.

At last Luffy placed one last bit of tape on Usopp's present, then sat back to survey his work. Every gift was wrapped, save for one. Beaming, Luffy reached into the bag for Zoro's gift…

Only to find that it wasn't there.

Blinking in confusion, Luffy lifted up the bag and turned it upside down. Nothing fell out, and there was a hole in the bag.

Luffy's eyes widened. Where was that necklace? He immediately began to search, practically turning the entire cabin upside down. However, no matter what he overturned, he couldn't seem to find the necklace.

It was gone! Zoro's gift was gone! What was he going to do? He had tried so hard to get something extra special too…

Well, if it wasn't here, maybe it had fallen out somewhere in town! With this in mind, Luffy immediately rushed towards the ladder and climbed out, leaving a pile of gifts behind him.

---

"Hey, has anyone seen Luffy?"

Things were winding down as the hour grew late. Chopper and Usopp lay sprawled out on the floor wishing they hadn't eaten all those holiday sweets, while Sanji still appeared to be making more for tomorrow. Nami was sipping a cup of hot chocolate and Robin was quietly reading a book, while Zoro appeared to be asleep. I say 'appeared' because the moment Nami spoke up, he cracked open one eye.

"I haven't seen him since he went to wrap gifts." Sanji said as he pulled a tray of cookies from the oven.

Zoro sighed, standing and stretching. "I'll go make sure he hasn't ended up wrapping himself up or something." He said with a yawn before making his way out the door.

Chopper's blue nose twitched and he suddenly hopped to his feet. "Are some of those for Santa!" He asked, looking at the cookies with wide eyes.

Sanji shrugged, taking a drag of his cigarette. "Sure, why not?"

"Yay!" Chopper cheered, rushing over to the cabinets and whipping out a plate. He then stood on his tiptoes to grab a few cookies, yelping and nearly dropping them when he realized how hot they were. He managed to get them on the plate, however, and then placed the plate on the table before hurrying to make a glass of milk as well.

Once he was finished he looked down at his work at beamed. "It's perfect!"

Usopp glanced up at it from the floor and sat up, grinning. "You bet it is! I'm sure Santa will love it…if he comes. You know, since we don't have a chimney…"

Chopper's eyes widened. "AHHH! WE DON'T HAVE A CHIMNEY! WHAT IF SANTA DOESN'T STOP HERE? AHHH! AHHH!" He cried, beginning to run around in circles.

Nami reached out and stopped him, rolling her eyes. "Of course Santa will stop here. It doesn't matter if we have a chimney or not."

"Really?" Chopper gasped.

"Yeah. But uh…he won't come if you're not asleep, so you'd better get to bed!" The navigator declared, nodding her head.

Chopper's eyes widened even further. "Ahhh, you're right!" With that he began rushing towards the door, but was cut off when Zoro suddenly came through it, covered in snow.

"Luffy's not here. He's gone." The swordsman growled, fist clenching the wood of the door.

Everyone stopped.

"He's what?" Nami shrieked.

"You heard me. He's gone. Left a pile of presents, a bunch of wrapping paper, and footprints in the snow leading off of the ship and into town." The swordsman stated, shaking his head. He looked a bit frantic and quite concerned, though he was trying to mask it rather poorly.

"Luffy left? On Christmas Eve?" Chopper cried.

"It's turning into a blizzard out there! He didn't bring his coat or anything!" Nami exclaimed, running a hand through her hair. "Of all the nights for him to pull a disappearing act…what the hell was he thinking?"

"Does he ever even think?" Sanji asked as he picked up his coat from the chair where he'd placed it and pulled it on. "Nami-san, you and Robin-chan stay here. I'll go look for him with Algae-head." He stated, glancing over at the swordsman.

Zoro didn't even offer a retort, he was already wordlessly hunting for his own coat. He had never even said he would be looking for his captain…but it was already clear that he would. He had no idea why Luffy had wandered off, but he wasn't going to let his captain freeze to death!

He hated to admit it, but he was really, really worried.

Nami sighed. "Fine. We'll stay here and see if he comes back. You two be careful." Robin nodded in silent agreement.

"B-but what about me? I can help!" Chopper cried, hopping up and down.

"No, Doctor-san. You stay here, Captain-san might need you when they get back. Besides, wouldn't you rather stay here and wait for Santa?" Robin asked.

"B-but…but…Luffy…"

"I'm going to bring him back." Zoro said calmly, finally finding the coat he'd stolen in Drum and pulling it on, grabbing Luffy's as well "I promise."

With that, he and Sanji were out the door.

---

The town really was different at night. While the cobbletone streets were filled with people during the day, they were now completely empty in the night. Bells rang in the distance, filling the air as soft, pure white snow drifted from the sky. The streets seemed alive with lights and decorations adorning every roof, but there was no one to be seen outside. Warm lights came from windows of various homes, laughter coming from inside as people spent time with their families on this glorious night.

But while it was warm inside, the streets were deserted and cold as the December chill came in gusts of frigid wind. While it was warm inside, the streets gave an air of lonliness.

Luffy trudgedalong slowly through a now empty street, sandled feet trudging through snow and leaving a lonely, single path behind him. The dim streetlights lit his way, icicles glowing with the light from Christmas lights. However, the lights did nothing to lift the boys spirits.

He trudged through the snow and would occasionally drop down here and there on his bare knees and dig through the snow, searching. It just had to be here somewhere! But no matter where he looked, Luffy couldn't seem to find it.

The boy finally came to a stop just in front of the shop where the gift had been bought, his entire body completely numb and his fingers so cold that he could barely move them. He collapsed in the snow below a streetlight, shivering and wrapping his bare arms around himself.

"I couldn't find it….I lost Zoro's present." He mumbled through chattering teeth. "I wanted to get something to show how important he was to me…and I lost it." His vision blurred as warm tears trickled from the corners of his eyes, leaving hot trails upon his frost-bitten face.

"S-so much for the best Christmas ever…I'm so sorry, Zoro…" Luffy sobbed, putting his face in his hands.

His only response was silence.

And then from down the street there came a voice, muttering to itself, along with the sound of heavy boots trudging through the snow.

"Stupid love cook…first I lose Luffy and now him…God, this sucks...where is he?" Then suddenly the sound of walking stopped. "…LUFFY?"

Luffy looked up through tear-filled eyes to see Zoro rushing through the snow towards him, the ends of his open coat flying behind him. The swordsman rushed over and fell to his knees before the boy, pulling him into a hug.

"There you are! I've been looking all over for you! God I was so…" He then realized how close he was to the boy and pulled away, blushing.

"I mean…don't run off like that again! I don't know how many times I've told you not to!" He said as he stood, avoiding the boys eyes. However, as soon as he was finished brushing the snow off Luffy, his eagle-like eyes meeting his captain's wide, innocent ones. His face then fell and he frowned, noting the tears in Luffy's eyes.

"Hey…what's wrong? Why are you crying?" He inquired, reaching up to brush away a few of the boy's tears with rough, callused fingers.

Luffy shook his head, pulling his face away. How could he tell him? How could he tell Zoro that he'd lost his present, after all he'd done to get it.

Zoro frowned, eyes filled with concern. "Luffy…" The swordsman gazed at the boy for a moment before shaking his head. He couldn't bear to see his captain like this, not on the night that he'd been so excited about. "Luffy…look at me. What's wrong?"

Luffy shook his head, turning away with a muffled sob.

"Luffy…come on, look at me." Zoro coaxed softly, cupping the boy's face in his hands and gently tipping his face towards him. Luffy looked up at him with wide eyes for several moments before he finally broke down, latching his arms around the swordsman and burying his face in his chest.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" Luffy's voice came out, muffled by Zoro's coat. "I lost your Christmas present! It was supposed to be the best gift ever and it was supposed to show you that you're the best first mate in the world! So I came out here to find it but it's cold and I can't find it and I just wanted this to be the best Christmas ever for everyone but I lost your present and ruined it!" He sobbed.

Zoro stood there for a few moments, at loss for words. "My Christmas present? That's what this is all about? You came out here and nearly froze to death just for that?" He cried.

Luffy just nodded.

The swordsman sighed, taking Luffy by the shoulders and pulling him away just enough so he could look him in the eyes. "Luffy, you didn't need to do all this for me! You could have froze to death! You being _alive_ is more important than some present!"

"B-but…I wanted to give you the best present ever…" Luffy sniffled.

Zoro gazed at Luffy for a moment before shaking his head and reaching up to wipe the rest of Luffy's tears away, though his still lingered upon the boys cheek. "You already gave me the best gift ever. I have you, remember? That's far better than anything else you could give me. I don't need anything else."

Luffy sniffled, his face becoming a small smile. "Really?"

"Really." Zoro said softly, pulling Luffy into a hug.

They remained that way for several minutes, locked in a warm embrace, the snow falling softly around them. All was peaceful.

Zoro didn't want to pull away, but it was cold and Luffy felt freezing. "Come on, let's get back to the ship." He said as he pulled away, taking Luffy's coat from under his arm and draping it over the boy's shoulders. Zoro then smiled, ruffling the boys hair. "Wouldn't want anyone thinking we both froze to death out here, huh?"

Luffy laughed out loud, a wide smile on his face. "Yeah!"

"Oi, Marimo! You found him!"

Luffy blinked, glancing over Zoro's shoulder to see Sanji running over. His face broke into a grin and he waved. "Hey, Sanji!"

Sanji smiled as he came to a stop in front of them, grinning. "Hey." His visible eye then narrowed and he suddenly swung a kick up towards Luffy's face, which the rubber pirate and Zoro barely ducked.

"ACK!"

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR, LOVE COOK?" Zoro snarled.

"It was meant for HIM!" Sanji growled, pointing at Luffy. "Don't you dare make Nami-san worry like that again! Such a beautiful lady shouldn't have to worry, especially tonight! If you ever do that again, I'll kick your ass!"

Luffy laughed. "Yeah..alright. Sorry, Sanji." He then frowned as he noticed something shining in the cook's hand. "Hey, what's that?" He asked, pointing to it.

"This?" Sanji inquired, holding it up. "I found it in the snow."

"That's Zoro's present!" Luffy cried, grabbing it and staring at it. It was covered in snow, but it seemed fine otherwise. He quickly wiped it off before turning to Zoro, smiling and holding it out.

"Merry Christmas, Zoro. I'm sorry I couldn't wrap it…" He said sheepishly, scratching his head and looking away.

Zoro blinked, taking the necklace and gaping at it. He traced his finger along the miniature blades that made up the pendent. "Wow…this is really amazing, Luffy. I…." He trailed off into silence, shaking his head and grinning. He put the necklace on and then held up the pedent to look at it. "Thank you. It's perfect."

Luffy just grinned.

"Alright then…let's get back to the ship." The swordsman declared, beginning to walk away.

"Ah ah ah! Not yet!" Sanji said.

Zoro stopped, blinking. "What?"

The cook just grinned, pointing up to the streetlamp above them. Both Luffy and Zoro simultaneously looked up to see a cluster of mistletoe hanging above their heads.

Zoro's eyes widened and he sputtered, face going red. Luffy just looked confused.

Sanji's grin became a bit demonic. "Go on marimo, it's tradition! Besides, you know you want to!" He said, waggling his visible eyebrow.

"I…I…." Zoro sputtered, face growing even redder. He hated to admit it, but Sanji was right…he _did _want to kiss the boy standing in front of him. Luffy gazed up at him with those wide, innocent orbs, head cocked to the side in confusion, his face tinted pink from the cold.

The swordsman sighed before smiling. "Fine." He murmured, pulling Luffy close. "But I won't say it."

With that, he pressed his lips against the younger pirate's.

Luffy's eyes widened in shock before closing as he quickly returned the kiss. The two remained entwined like that, locked in an embrace, two hearts beating to the same rhythm as bells chimed in the distance.

Finally, Zoro pulled away and the two gazed at each other, blushing. It may have been cold outside, but Zoro's heart had never warmer.

Sanji let out a cough. "Okay love birds, come on, that's enough." He muttered.

"Love birds?" Zoro repeated, eyes widening. "I am not-"

"Sure you are. You're just in denial."

"I am not!"

"Awww, would you look at that! The shit swordsman's afraid to admit that he actually had a heart after all!"

"I..I…SHUT UP! DARTBOARD EYEBROW!"

"ALGAE-HEAD!"

Luffy just laughed, pulling Zoro close. "This is the best Christmas ever."

Meanwhile, several yards away in an alleyway stood a certain "Playboy Sugarplum Spirit of Christmas." Shanks chuckled, pressing the stop button on his Video Den Den Mushi.

"Perfect." He said with a grin. "That should keep this stupid holiday around for awhile, at least."

With that, Shanks pocketed the Den Den Mushi and stepped out of the alleyway, stretching. "I guess I oughta head back to the main office now so I can get the hell out of this stupid thing."

"Phew…maybe now I can get out of this stupid thing."

Shanks eyes widened and he spun around to see across the street. There stood Ben Beckman, clad in a pair of tight red leather pants. He was also shirtless and wore a sparkling silver head-band with a heart on it. Strapped to his back were two quite fake, feathery wings, and he was holding a red bow and quiver of heart-shaped arrows.

"Ben?" He cried, his jaw dropping.

Ben spun around, nearly dropping his bow. "Shanks? What are you doing here?"

"I could ask the same of you!" The red-haired pirate said, looking his first mate up and down. "You look like some kind of Playboy Valentines Day display."

"That's Cupid to you. And you look like some kind of Playboy Sugarplum Fairy." Ben growled.

"It's more like the Spirit of Christmas." Shanks said, folding his arms and huffing. "I got blackmailed into finding proof that Christmas Spirit…excuse me, Christmas Spirit™, still exists so Christmas wouldn't get canceled."

"What's with the ™?" Ben inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"Long story. Anyway, why are _you_ here?" Shanks asked.

"Eh, Cupid's been trying to get those two together for months, but he keeps missing. Apparently I have better aim, so he conned me into taking his job." Ben explained, rolling his eyes.

"Ah…stupid holidays."

"You're telling me."

"What do you say we hurry up and turn everything in so we can get out of this crap and have a cup of eggnog?" Shanks asked, grinning.

Ben shrugged. "Fine."

Shanks waved his wand, and a small area of glowing energy appeared before them to teleport them back. The two pirates stepped towards it, both thankful their ordeals were almost over.

"Shanks?"

"Yeah?"

"Let's never speak of this again."

"Sure…" Shanks said with a grin, beginning to lift up the Video Den Den Mushi.

"Take a picture and you aren't getting any until St.Patrick's Day."

"Awwwwwwwwwwww."

**-The End-**

_**Happy Holidays!**_

_**- Digitaldreamer**_


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